Better think twice before asking a stupid question! This picture is from Flickr user matildaben. Link -via Reddit

What do you see in this picture? Underneath the houses and “lawns” is an airplane factory! The Army Corps of Engineers covered the entire works with camouflage to protect the facility from Japanese attacks during World War II. See more pictures at Think or Thwim. Link -via Reddit

Retronyms are terms that became neccessary to distinguish the original from new alternatives. Some examples:

George H.W. Bush
A rare example of a living person with a retronym. Until his son, George W. Bush, also became President, George Bush rarely, if ever, used his middle initials.
Manual transmission (Also standard transmission)
Automotive transmissions were all manual, of course, before the invention of the automatic transmission.
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Originally released in 1977 under the title Star Wars. The new title was applied in a 1981 re-release after the decision to make additional films, allowing Star Wars to refer to the entire series.
World War I
Originally this was called "The Great War" and commonly believed to be "the war to end all wars". However, when a second war enveloped Europe, Asia, and much of the Pacific, it became necessary to distinguish them. Similarly, the 1991 war in the Persian Gulf, formerly called "Desert Storm" or just the "Gulf War", is now (since the 2003 invasion of Iraq) often referred to as "The First Gulf War".

Link (via Dark Roasted Blend)

Eat with the Diet Fork and lose weight! Only $8.95.

* Shorter and dulled teeth inhibiting user from grasping larger pieces of food at any one time
* Smaller triangular shaped surface area allowing dieter to hold less food than many other forks
* Uncomfortable grip compelling user to put fork down between bites, slowing the user's eating speed

Hmm, I think this fork may be more likely to lead you to eat with your hands instead of eating less. Link -via Mookie

This award-winning 2001 Lego stop-motion animation recreates the opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark, with a surprise ending. Push play or go to College Humor. Link to more about the movie. -via Look at This

Ursi’s Blog always has “fine things for your delight”, including a selection of live webcam feeds in her sidebar. If you follow her site, you saw a family of storks raising their babies recently. Now she has a feed of a webcam trained on a hummingbird feeder. Depending on the time of day, you can see lots of hummingbirds in real time! The tiny screengrab here doesn’t do them justice. There are also links to other selected webcams. Link

Why have a big ugly tank when you can make it a work of art, or at least advertising? This gallery has examples of how to make a tank something worth looking at, like this caterpillar tank in Oklahoma. Link -via Dump Trumpet

A simple but ingenious first aid device has won the prestigious INDEX: work award. The Tongue Sucker holds an unconcious person’s tongue by a vacuum, and the air bulb keeps the tongue pointed outside the mouth, keeping the airway open for CPR and other medical interventions. The £68,000 award went to a British team of four students from Imperial College and the Royal College of Art. Link -via Metafilter

African spurred tortoises Mud and Hermes live at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. They go outside for a little snack when the mood strikes them, to the delight of museum visitors. When they get tired, they head home to their quarters on their own. http://whatisee.org/mt/archives/entries/001486.html -via Gothamist

Deputydog has a list of extreme cases of body modification, including tatoos, piercings, implants, and other methods. The people on this list have not been modified to correct a birth defect or injury, but as elective decoration. Warning: This post is may be disturbing, and not for the squeamish. Link

Maybe Neatorama should run an ad like this, since gail can’t be here all the time! Although the language is garbled, the meaning is perfectly clear. I especially like the part about submitting a better version of this ad. Found at The Shanghaiist via Grow-A-Brain.

If you are truly sick of Pachelbel’s Canon in D, you will want to skip this. But if you enjoyed Total Momsense, you will want to hear this song about the frustrations of parenting. Push play or go to YouTube. -via Arbroath

Uranus' rings weren't discovered until 1977. Now, a telescope in Hawaii has taken images of the side where the sun doesn't shine. The changes observed in the rings since 1980 are attributed to large impacts. Let the puns begin. Link

Mike Flynt’s biggest regret was getting kicked off his college football team in his senior year -37 years ago. So he checked his eligibility and joined the team once again at Sul Ross State in Texas! He is eight years older than his coach, and has children older than his teammates.

"I told him he's an idiot," said Jerry Larned, who coached Flynt at Sul Ross in 1969 and counseled him at the start of his comeback. "I said, 'Gosh, dang, Mike, you're not 20 years old any more. You're liable to cripple yourself.' He understands all of that. But he has a burning desire to play. ... He is in great physical condition. He still runs a 5-flat 40 and bench presses I-don't-know-what. He's a specimen for 59 years old.”

Flynt’s position is still undetermined, but he could be on the field as early as September first. Link -via College Humor

Matt Tovey collected several hundred old CPUs during a company upgrade and made this awesome desktop! Then he posted the process with pictures. Link -via Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories